The Void
by JadeDjo
Summary: There are regions of space that all long-haul spacers know to avoid. The old-timers tell tales of ships entering and never coming back out. Gobbled up by The Void. Captain Shirlee Faughn of the Starry Ice and her crew stumble into one of these voids in space responding to a distress call. But who will rescue them?
1. Chapter 1

Just a quick note. This story is actually from the perspective of Shirlee Faughn, a minor Legends character. She is not available as a character choice on and the admins have never gotten back to me about adding her. So while Mara Jade is in this story she's not the focus.

* * *

Full Summery:

There are regions of space that all long-haul spacers know to avoid. Places where the stars are few and far between. Of a place of complete blackness. Blacker then deepest ocean or darkest cave. It should be an easy place to navigate with few large gravity wells and virtually no nebula to plot around. But they are spoken of in hushed tones and whispers during the long jumps with only the blue-white whirl of hyperspace for comfort. No one knows for sure why they are to be avoided. The old timers tell tales of ships entering and never coming back out. Gobbled up by The Void.

The _Starry Ice_ and her crew stumble into one of these voids in space responding to a distress call. But who will rescue them?

* * *

The _Starry Ice_ exited hyperspace into… nothing. No stars, no nebula, just nothing. It was the eeriest place Captain Shirlee Faughn had ever been.

"Is that distress call any clearer," she called to Corvus at communications.

"No Captain," he said. "I'm not even picking it up anymore."

"These are the correct coordinates?" She asked.

"Yes ma'am," Elkin confirmed human his face frowning in confusion. "According to what we could piece together from the distress call, they should be right here."

"Then where is the _Lonely Star_?" Asori Holgor, her new first mate, asked.

"Get every sensor we have running, I want to know if there is anything larger than a micrometeor out there," Shirlee told everyone. Because even if _Lonely Star_ had somehow been destroyed there should be debris to confirm it. But with no sun, planets, or background stars, looking out the viewport was like looking at a blank monitor. As if something had switched off the galaxy.

Shirlee had heard of regions of space like this. Gillespee had told his crew about flying through one of these voids and said to avoid them at all costs. When she had asked why he simply said, 'Ships disappear in The Void.'

"Run the call back again," Shirlee ordered trying not to let the old superstitions get to her.

Static filled the bridge.

"Corvus?"

"Trying Captain, it's… just not there," the rodent-like features of his Chandra-Fan face wrinkling in his version of a frown.

"What do you mean, 'not there'? You made a recording, right?" It was standard operating procedure to record distress calls throughout the galaxy and especially in Talon Karrde's Organization.

"Of course, but it's like it's been overwritten with static. Not deleted, just… not there."

If this was any other crew for any other organization, Shirlee might think that he had made a mistake in the recording or just failed to make it and lied about it. But this ship belonged to The Organization. And Karrde didn't hire incompetent people.

"Check again for the signal on all available frequencies. I want to double check and make sure no one needs help before we head back."

While her crew carried out their duties, Shirlee couldn't help but squint out the viewport. It was nearly impossible to spot anything without sensors even in normal space. But in the absence of anything else to see a damaged ship with running lights should show up easily. Unless there was nothing left to see.

"There is… something out there," and Shirlee couldn't help the jolt that went through her at the vague and distant sound of Mara Jade's voice right behind her. She hadn't even heard her walk up behind the captain's chair much less enter the bridge. Jade had a habit of doing that. Appearing silently and without warning. Shirlee was mostly convinced the other woman did it unconsciously. But from the few rumors she had heard about Jade, it left some doubt in her mind.

Technically Jade shouldn't even be on the _Starry Ice_. She was no doubt needed doing something else more critical than filling in as temporary ships mechanic till Shirlee could find a new chief engineer. But once Jade had heard they were without and headed to the far reaches of galaxy she'd insisted on coming along.

Shirlee hadn't been with Talon Karrde's Organization long. Just long enough to hear some interesting things about their leader's second-in-command. Like she was as deadly as a Xorvian Viper and as friendly as one. That she just knew things and was more right then naught. That the lightsaber that hung from her belt at all times was from a Jedi she'd killed, though Shirlee scoffed at that one. The only Jedi she knew of was Luke Skywalker and he was doing just fine. But the other things, like insisting on coming along what was essentially a shakedown for the Ice's crew and her new Captain. That suggested to Shirlee that she was being observed for Karrde, which was not his style. His reputation was one of trust and loyalty. If he felt you were capable then he left you alone to do your job. Which left another more disturbing possibility. That Jade had known that something would happen and felt she needed to be aboard when it did.

And now a distress call in one of the galaxy's voids, a region of space where the stars were so far apart little to no light got through and the _Starry Ice_ was the only ship capable of investigating it. Shirlee just didn't believe in coincidences.

"Shavit Jade! A little warning would be nice," Shirlee said clutching her chest.

"It's calling," said Jade wistfully.

"What's calling?" She had never heard Jade use that tone before. The woman was as warm as durasteel.

"I don't know," Jade said absently. "I just feel it."

"Alright," Shirlee's creep factor rising. "Someone better give me a straight god damn answer or we're leaving."

"I don't know what Jade is talking about Captain," Torve said. "Sensors show nothing larger than space dust."

"There's nothing on comms either," Corvus added. "No background static, Holonet transmissions, or subspace frequencies. It's a dead zone."

The bridge was silent for a long stretch.

Until a burst of static had everyone jumping in their seats. Everyone but Jade, Shirlee absently noted. She was standing still as a support beam staring out into the blackness as if she actually saw something out there.

"Pl…se… th…coming…..ease," a desperate voiced said barely discernable through the static.

Jumping from her seat to the comms station Shirlee said urgently into the mic, "This is Captain Faughn of the _Starry Ice_. We read you. I repeat, this is the _Starry Ice_ , we read you. Tell us where you are, copy?"

Static resumed from the open connection. She grabbed the headset intending to repeat her message when a faint sound could be heard through the static.

"…help…...it's …ing," the voice said through the static, no louder than a whisper. She doubted she would even have heard it had she not had her ear right next to the speaker.

"Captain?" Holgor asked. "What?"

"All I could make out was 'help'" she looked at Corvus for confirmation. He nodded, his hearing better than humans. "And…,"

"It's coming," Jade finished, her voice now monotone and flat though there was no way she could have heard from her position behind the captain's chair.

"I don't like this," Torve said hunching in his seat. "I still don't read anything but particulate out there."

Shirlee moved to stand before Jade, "If you know something Jade, you better share it or we're gone." But it was as if the other woman was looking right through her, at something that only she could see.

Her engineer/supervisor said nothing.

"All right, that's it. We're out of here," Shirlee ordered just at the whole ship lurched to port with a shriek of metal and sirens blaring from every station.

"Report," she shouted over the cacophony of sound.

"Hull breach on deck 3… Emergency bulkheads holding…"

"Hyperdrive is offline…"

"Sublight engines at 50%…."

"Main power is fluctuating…"

"Tell me something useful," she shouted over everyone. The only sound was the warning sirens and alarms.

"It's hungry…," Jade said from behind her and Shirlee turned to face her. What she saw sent a chill down Shirlee's spine. Mara Jade's usually bright green where nearly black, the pupils dilated to maximum. Her voice was deep and huskier than usual and contained a cadence that was not her norm.

"Jade?" Shirlee tentatively asked.

Another shriek of metal sent everyone sprawling to the deck as the internal compensators failed along with main power.

"Holgor, get us out of here!" Shirlee shouted, trying to be heard as more alarms went off and red emergency lights came on, strobing a steady on/off rhythm as the backup power generator came on.

"Can't! Engines are offline," the Togruta at the helm shouted back.

"Divert all power to the shields!"

"Diverting...…shields holding at 45%."

As the words left her mouth the ship leached to port for the third time, but instead of more metal bending and warping, the ship just spun with the force of the impact.

Shirlee asked hesitantly, her stomach threatening to heave without the compensators, "Shields?"

"Holding. Still at 45%," Holgor confirmed.

Getting to her feet, Shirlee looked out the viewport trying to find the source of the impacts. It still showed nothing but caliginous space.

"Wha…., what happened?" a confused voice said from behind her. Looking over she saw Jade sprawled on the deck, hand to her head, glancing around confused.

"You tell us," Holgor growled as her hands frantically wove over her control board trying to get main power back online.

Jade shook her head before slowly getting to her feet. "Something was… calling to me. In my mind."

"In your mind?" Elkin said frowning skeptically at her.

"Through the Force," she clarified.

"You're a Jedi?" Torve asked.

"No," Jade shook her head again as if that would clear her confusion as she got back on her feet. "Just Force sensitive."

"As fascinating as this all is unless it can get us out of here save it for later," barked Holgor. Shirlee agreed with her first officer, whatever happened to Jade would have to wait.

"Jade, are you alright to see what's happening in engineering?" Shirlee inquired eyeing the shorter woman's somewhat dazed condition.

Jade straightened and the uncertainty left her eyes, "I think so, yes."

"Good, get down there and see if you can get main power and the hyperdrive back online," she told her looking back out at the emptiness. "I don't want to be stuck here any longer then we have too."

The red strobing emergency lights were giving Shirlee a headache. The reports coming in from the crew an hour later were not helping to alleviate it. The hull breach on deck 3 had resulted in the death of Ziac Arka a male Arconan deckhand who had been on deck 3 when the hull breached. He had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Shirlee had probably spoken with him a handful of times and other than having a warped sense of humor he'd seemed alright.

"Main power will be back in an hour but the sublight engines are gone," Jade reported braking Shirlee away from her melancholy thoughts.

"How badly damaged?" Shirlee asked with a had over her eyes trying to block out the constant strobing and giving her time to collect herself over Arka's death.

"Not damaged, gone," Raffine Morlev, one of the engineers, corrected. Her bright blue hair in contrast to the black grease on her forehead. "As in so badly damaged they'll need to be completely replaced."

"How is that possible!" Torve exclaimed.

"Whatever took them out doesn't show up on sensors," Holgor groused.

Shirlee rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands. "And the hyperdrive?"

When no one answered she dropped her hands to the table with a slap. "Jade? Morlev?"

"I think it would be better to try and get the backup hyperdrive operational before tackling the main one," Morlev ventured when Jade didn't respond.

"You can't be serious," Holgor said. "It would take us a year to reach the nearest habitual system that could affect hyperdrive repairs."

"Without the navi-computer, I can't be sure but, more like 3 years," Elkin said quietly to the table.

"Kriff that," Shirlee spat trying to ignore the way the red lights cast everyone in a blood red hue before leaving them in complete darkness for a heartbeat. "Our food stores will last us 6 months. I want the main hyperdrive back online as soon as possible. Cannibalize the backup if you have too but get it working and get us the Hell out of here. Dismissed." As the other started to get up to get back to work Shirlee noted that Jade didn't budge.

When everyone had left the common room that was serving as a temporary meeting room, Shirlee asked, "Alright Jade, tell me straight. Is this some kind of test of Karrde's? Cause if it is he can take this job and shove it somewhere darker than a black hole."

"It's not a test," Jade assured her. "Karrde doesn't work that way and neither do I. But there is something out there that doesn't want us to leave."

"Can you tell me what happened on the bridge?"

"I…can't," then seeing the disbelief on the Captains face she amended. "It's not that I don't want to. It's that I can't really remember what happened. One minute I'm in engineering and the next I'm on the floor of the bridge with a splitting headache."

"If you feel like you can't keep it together then let me know now."

"I'm fine," she said tartly.

Looking at Jade's set jaw and piercing green eyes, the upturned angle of her chin and the ramrod straight spine, Shirlee took her word.

"Let me know what you need to get the hyperdrive working."

"Just time."

"I don't think we have a lot of that to spare."

"Then I'd better get back to work." She left and Shirlee was left with only the red emergency lights, like the pulse of the ship, to reassure her.

Main power was still not back when the tapping started. At first, Shirlee thought it was something to do with those crewmembers working on the engines but when she stopped to listen the sound was not coming from the lower decks but the hull.

Tap. Pause. Tap. Tap. Longer pause. Tap.

In a seemingly random pattern and from more than one place echoing through the ship. As far as she knew the shields were still up and nothing should be impacting the outer hull like that.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Pause. Tap. Silence for a 10 count. Tap.

"Elkin, Jubhi, you hear that?" She asked the only other crew on the bridge.

The female Wookie rumbled and Elkin said, "Right, I thought it was coming from below decks too."

"No listen…," and they were silent but no more tapping sounded.

Jubhi started to growl when it resumed. Louder than before.

TAP. Pause. TAP. TAP. Silence for a 5 count. TAP.

"That's from the hull!" Elkin exclaimed. "But the shields are still up. Not even a meteoroid field could get through."

"And nothing on sensors," Shirlee asked already knowing the answer as Jubhi rumbled affirmative.

They listened as the taping continued. Shirlee's trepidation mounting with each pulse of the emergency lights.

Until it just stopped. She counted out a full 3 minutes of silence, straining her hearing with no further sounds.

Not willing to jinx it, Shirlee was about to return to her datapad when a blinding white light pierced through her eyes so accustomed to the darkness. Blinding her as she heard Jubhi's enraged roar and Elkin cry out in surprise.

"Main power is back online, Captain," Jaleer Irris, one of the deck hands, said through the ship's intercom. She had been assisting with repairs. "Jade says she'll get back to you…,"

Before she could finish the ship careened wildly as it was struck on aft starboard side sending it spinning tail over nose while rolling along its horizontal axis. So violently that even the newly restored internal compensators where having a hard time keeping up.

Shirlee had been sitting at the helm and fired the port thrusters trying to control the axial spin, then the bow thrusters to stop the lateral spin. The gyrations were just coming under control when the ship stopped dead.

"What did you do?" Elkin asked, a tremor in his voice.

Shirlee shook her head, "I was just firing the thrusters to get us under control."

Jubhi had been clinging to the comm's console and if a Wookie could look ill she did. Her tan and russet fur was disheveled and Shirlee could see the white all the way around her irises. And though she was not an expert in understanding Shyriiwook, Jubhi growl and barks sounded unsteady.

"Trust me, I wish I could take credit for stopping us but it wasn't me."

Another growl.

"I wish I knew."

"What the hell is going on up there?!" Holgor's voice sounded from the comm.

A series of grunts, growls, and rumbles told Shirlee Jubhi was trying to explain what happened while she checked her board for damage.

"Elkin, I don't suppose you know where we are?" she said scanning the emptiness for any point of reference.

He looked over frowning, checked his board, opened his mouth about to speak, before closing it and sucking in a quick breath through his nose. Turning, he was about to speak but Shirlee cut him off.

"Don't bother saying anything. You don't know."

Nodding mutely, he turned back to his controls, staring at them as if they had betrayed him.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

It was back.

Standing she yelled to no one in particular, "What the HELL is going on!"

"CAPTAIN!" Irris screamed from the comm and Jubhi roared.

But Shirlee was already running for the back of the bridge.

She made it to the engine compartment 4 decks down in record time, Jubhi not far behind and Elkin puffing a few beats later. The emergency bulkhead was down and she could see through the porthole in the door a large hole in the side of the ship. She didn't see any of her crew in the compartment.

"Holgor! Jade! Anyone!" She shouted desperately into the intercom next to the door while Jubhi roared her own frustrations. "Please RESPOND!"

But she couldn't hear if there was a response while the enraged Wookie roared and pounded on the bulkhead.

"Jubhi!" She shouted at the Wookie who did not stop. "Jubhi!" she tried again and moved to stand between the Wookie and the bulkhead. A dangerous position if Jubhi was rage-crazed. "Jubhivewarl!"

Perhaps it was the use of her full name or her Captain standing in front of her but she stopped her roaring and gave a mournful growl.

"Listen," Shirlee told her. "They may have gotten out. There's another door on the opposite side. But I can't contact them over your howls. 'kay?"

The fur over Jubhi's brows slid over her eyes and she nodded her understanding and compliance. Shirlee gave her arm a quick squeeze before turning back to the intercom. Elkin was already there, speaking rapidly.

"Can you make your way up to deck 4?" he said and was answered by Jade's voice.

"Looks clear. We'll meet you there. Jade out."

"The others?" Shirlee asked.

Elkin shook his head. "Jade says everyone but Drayen made it out," Elkin said and Jubhi let out a low whine. "Holgor banged up her montrals but is otherwise okay and everyone else is fine."

Shirlee closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She would mourn Senna Drayen later. For now, she had the rest of her crew to think about. "Let's go."

Tap. Pause. Tap. Tap. Tap. Pause. Tap.

The tapping had not let up since the last crash and it was getting on Shirlee's nerves. Probably more so then the strobing lights that filled some corridors and not others. But the tapping could be heard throughout the ship, no matter what deck or how far toward the center she was.

It was making Jubhi edgy. Her fur raised at the back of her neck and her nose scrunched and fangs slightly bared. Elkin kept glancing around after every pause, as he could see what was causing it through the walls.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Pause. Tap. Pause. Tap. Tap. Silence for a 20 count. Tap.

Jubhi roared.

"I know its annoying," Shirlee said. "But there is nothing we can do about it. Let's just meet up with the rest of the crew."

The young Wookie, well by Wookie standards as they believed that anyone under their first century was young, crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. But Shirlee could see her eye's darting around and her fangs were still bared. At least she was quiet.

Her group was waiting at the exit point for Jade and the rest of the crew. Except Drayen. Shirlee was only a few months into her Captaincy for Karrde and she had already lost 2 crew. It wasn't the first time someone had died under her command. And it wouldn't be the last. But each and every one hurt just like the first.

Not wanting to dwell on Ziac Arka or Senna Dayen's death, Shirlee was about to comm the others to check their progress when the hatch to below desks opened. Out first was Mara Jade who reached back to give Asori Holgor help through only to be rebuffed by the other woman. Shirlee frowned at that but pushed it aside as Jaleer Irris, Fynn Torve and Corvus who had been trying to boost sensor output, and last Rafine Morlev stepped through the hatch.

Everyone but Holgor looked shaken but fine. Holgor's olive green skin looked darker and her white markings were striped here and there with blood from a multitude of cuts. Her cream and white montrals had smudges here and there. Shirlee wasn't sure how the hollow horns on the togruta's head handled damage or her hanging lekku but she looked like she was giving herself space from the other so as not to bump them. Or it could just be the hostile looks she was shooting Jade that made her stand apart from the others.

Deciding to talk to Holgor in private Shirlee asked Jade, "What happened down there?"

Jade started to shake her head but Holgor decided to speak up, "I'll tell you what happened. She," and she struck her finger at Jade. "Got Senna killed. That's what happened."

"No she didn't!" Morlev spoke up, glaring at Holgor. "Senna was standing by the hull trying to find out where the tapping was coming from when something penetrated the hull sucking Senna out instantly. Jade was with you and me working on the hyperdrive."

The togruta winced as Morlev's loud voice echoed through the ship's hall and through Holgor's sanative montrals.

"Jade wasn't with us," Holgor corrected hotly. "She had left to get the proper sized pilex driver we needed when the breach happened."

"I don't see how that is Jade's fault," Shirlee interjected.

"Because she'd been going all funny again. Kept looking at the hull with a glazed expression as if she knew what was out there."

Shirlee just starred at her first mate waiting for more proof. Holgor starred back before saying, "Jaleer, tell the captain what you told me."

Irris looked from Holgor to Shirlee and back, suddenly in the spotlight and not liking it one bit. Her dark eyes looking anywhere but at her captain or first officer. A few strands of her black hair falling in her face as she finally settled on looking at the deck plating.

"It's ok," Shirlee assured the reclusive girl in a comforting voice. If she was a day past 18 Shirlee would be surprised. "I just need to know what happened in engineering."

"Well, Captain, I don't…," Irris stammered before Holgor cut her off.

"Go on Jaleer! Tell her!" Holgor barked.

Irris hunched her shoulders and shut her mouth, closing up at Holgor's harsh and the whole crew staring at her. Jade included as if she herself didn't know what had happened.

"Jubhi! Take Holgor somewhere and get her checked out," Shirlee ordered.

"Captain," Holgor started to say but finally shut up at a withering look from her captain and allowed Jubhi to help her. As they moved down the corridor Shirlee told the remainder of the crew, "As for the rest of you, Irris stay here, Jade get that hyperdrive working, and the rest go find something useful to do that will get us out of here."

Everyone but Irris shuffled past to other parts of the ship. Jade paused a moment looking at the young deckhand as if trying to read her soul before walking back through the hatch and back to the lower decks. All the while the tapping continued.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Pause. Tap. Pause. Tap.

Grinding her teeth at the sounds Shirlee tried to push it aside as she relaxed her face to calm the introverted girl.

Normally deck hands were brash, confident, and/or assertive enough to handle being on a ship for long stretches with no one else but the other members of the crew for entertainment. Shy and apprehensive people usually couldn't take the restrictive, close-quarters environment of space. According to Jaleer Irris' personnel file, she was an above-average slicer and so was kept around for her computer skills and not her introverted personality.

Speaking in a soft voice to Irris, trying to draw her out of her shell Shirlee said, " 'kay Jaleer. No one here but you and me. You're not in trouble, but I really need to know what happened before the hull breach. Think you can tell me?"

"I…, I don't know what I what I saw Captain," the girl said to the floor.

"Just try and tell me what you can as best as you can remember it."

She nodded and more hair escaped her hair tie and covered her face.

"I was using the diagnostics console to tell the others if their repairs were working or not. Asori said she needed a different driver and Jade got up to get one."

"Where was Senna?" Shirlee asked gently.

"She was by the hull working on the alluvial dampeners and speculating on what was causing the tapping we were all hearing. She had the toolbox near her so Jade went over in that direction. I don't know what happened next. I was looking at the diagnostics screen but I hear Senna say 'Jade, what are you doing?' I look up and Jade had her hand on the hull wall. The tapping seemed to be getting louder from that spot."

There was a long pause and Shirlee prompted soothingly, "And then what happened?"

"I, I…, I don't really know? Okay? It all happened so fast!" she wailed.

"I know Jaleer, I know. But try 'kay? Try and remember."

The girl took a deep breath and nodded. "There was a loud noise," she began. "Like screaming but from no voice I've ever heard, then the air is rushing out of the engine room. I see Jade but not Senna before Rafine grabs me and pulls me towards the emergency door. I think I might have blacked out because next thing I know Asori is lying next to me with Rafine standing over her. Jade has her back to us and is ignoring all the questions Rafine is asking her. It's not until Asori tells us that Jade was unresponsive in the engine room and she tried to get Jade out but hit her head. Somehow they made it out together."

"So why does this make Holgor think Jade was involved in Senna's death?"

"Because, b-b-because," Jaleer stammered before taking another deep breath. "Because, as Jade passed me on her way to get the right driver I thought I heard her muttering. 'I know you're hungry. I know. I know. So hungry.' I thought, at the time, she was talking about herself.

"Look, Captain," Irris said imploringly. "Jade's been real nice to me ever since she came on board. Not at all stand-offish like some of the others say she is. I don't think she had anything to do with Senna getting sucked out into space. It, it was an accident…Wasn't it?" The note of uncertainty in her voice made Shirlee want to comfort her and tell her of course it was an accident. But she stuck with the truth as much as she could.

"I won't lie. _Something_ is going on since we exited hyperspace. But did Jade kill Senna Drayen? I don't think so. There is no motive."

"What about what Asori said? That Jade went all funny on the bridge right before we lost power."

"I don't know what that was but we have enough to worry about instead of jumping at boton flies. Now go find Corvus. See if the two of you can boost our normal transmission and find us a way to contact someone. Got it?" Shirlee said as she patted Irris on the shoulder.

"Okay," the girl agreed and headed for the lift.

"Good girl."

Tap. Tap. Tap.


	2. Chapter 2

The engine room was empty. At least as far as Shirlee could tell from the secondary entrance door and a tiny window to look through. But it felt as empty of life as it was empty of air. Jade would have needed a vac-suit to continue working on the hyperdrive. And while not bulky, one was not exactly nimble in them either. Just for good measure she used the comm panel, "Jade? You in there?"

No answer.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Pause. Tap. Tap. Tap. Pause. Tap.

Except for the incessant tapping.

But where could she be? When Jade had left so Shirlee could talk to Irris, she'd gone back the same way she had initially come in. From the lower decks. The only other place she could have gone was to the aft section of the cargo holds on Decks 4 and 5 where the aft lift went all the way up to the crew quarters, galley, the main computer core, life support, waste reclamation, and finally the bridge.

Deck 5 was virtually empty after the _Starry Ice_ had offloaded the cargo at Koda Space Station on the south-eastern reaches of the outer rim. That had been their second to last stop before heading back coreward to drop off the remainder of their cargo on D4 at Bespin and to pick up a load of tibanna gas bound for Apoxamia 5.

Jubhni should have taken Holgor up to the crew quarters to get checked out and if Jade was smart, and she had given Shirlee every indication that she was, then she would avoid the togruta till things could be straightened out.

Tap. Tap. Pause. Tap. Pause.

Deciding to backtrack, she followed the maintenance corridor from D3 to D4 and made her way to the aft lift. Weaving between the cargo stacks 5 meters high and secured with mag-clamps, Shirlee was just about to enter the aft lift when she heard a voice. With the engines off and only basic systems running the ship was eerily quiet. So even though the voice was low and indistinct, Shirlee could pinpoint it as coming from near the center of the deck.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Turning around to head to the center of the hold, Shirlee stopped to listen again at the central cargo lift. The voice was just a few meters away. She started down an artificial hallway created by the stacks leading to the forward lift. The lighting in the cargo decks was never very good even when empty. With the stacks nearly touching the ceiling that left the passage between them in deep gloom. So dark that if Jade hadn't been speaking Shirlee would have tripped over her.

The younger woman was sitting cross-legged on the deck, hands on her knees murmuring, "I am here and I am one with the Force. I am now and the Force is with me."

"Jade? What are you doing here?"

"Meditating," she said flatly, not sounding surprised Shirlee had found her.

"Meditating. Here. In the dark cargo hold." She really did try to keep the sarcastic skepticism out her voice.

"It's like sensory deprivation," Jade explained with a sigh, standing up. "Entering a meditative state usually isn't hard, but I can't concentrate. I thought the elimination of distractions would help."

Tap. Tap. Tap

"But I can't concentrate!" She said with increasing frustration, growling in the direction of the hull.

"And the hyperdrive?" Shirlee tried to keep her voice even. Jade wasn't her crew and she couldn't afford to get testy with Karrde's lieutenant.

"I can't fix the hyperdrive if I can't concentrate," she bit back. "I had hoped that meditating for a few minutes would clear my mind."

"From your tone, it seems to be helping real well," oh yeah, there went her efforts at limiting the sarcasm.

"It's not," Jade said ignoring her tone. "I'd better get a vac suit and get to work on the hyperdrive. Do you mind sending Morlev down to give me a hand?"

"I'll tell her on my way to check up on Holgor."

Jade had been about to pass Shirlee on her way the aft lift but stopped and put a tentative hand in on the captain's shoulder. "I didn't do anything."

In the gloom of the weak, yellow overhead lights and the deep shadows created by the stacks, Shirlee couldn't be sure, but she thought Jade was staring at her. As if willing Shirlee to believe her.

"I didn't think you did," she told Jade, patting the hand on her shoulder. Shirlee didn't know _what_ the hell was going on. But she didn't believe Jade was a murderer.

"If she's willing to listen," the other woman went on as she removed her hand quickly, as if unused to a comforting touch. "Tell Holgor thanks. For getting me out. I owe her one."

"I'll tell her."

Tap. Pause. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Shirlee found Morlev in the crew common room just outside the crew's quarters on D8. With a jerk of her head she sent the engineer out who frowned and threw a last worried look towards Holgor's cabin. As first mate, Holgor had a private cabin to herself. Jade had the one opposite it while the crew had communal bunks. The captain's suit, because with a whole section of D7 to herself it couldn't be called anything else, was one of the perks of working for Karrde. He knew how to treat his captains.

The others in the common room, Elkin and Torve, quickly made themselves scares as she headed for Holgor's cabin.

Without bothering to sound the door chime she hit the release and stepped in. With Holgor on the bed and Jubhi hovering over her with a med scanner, there wasn't much further she could go into the cabin. Opposite the door was the bed and a storage locker at the foot. Jubhi stood next to a personal data terminal with desk chair while across from that was a private 'fresher. Shirlee stood next to the sonic shower, arms folded under her chest as she waited for Jubhi to finish.

Holgor didn't look so good. If anything, her skin was even darker than before, making the white markings on her face and neck stand out even more. A bacta patch covered a deep gash on her forehead and salve was applied to the other cuts on her face. But probably the most telling was the twitch she gave at every Tap, Tap, Tap of the hull. Her montrals picking up the reverberations and possibly sending her into sensory overload.

A moment later Jubhi sat in the desk chair and gave a series of slow rumbles, growls, and barks. Shirlee concentrated as the wookie explained Holgor's condition.

It could be summed up as she's hurt but will be fine. The only thing sticking out in the report was some bruising to her left montral. It was sensitive and only time could heal it.

"Thank you Jubhi. Now go see if you can boost our sensors so we can find out what's out there and hopefully blast it into space dust. Get Torve to help you and send Elkin to Jade."

She nodded and Shirlee had to practically stand in the shower stall to let the 2.14 meter tall wookie by.

As soon as the door to the cabin whooshed shut Holgor said in a pained voice, an arm flung over her eyes, "It was her Captain. I know it."

"Why would she do that though?" Shirlee asked sitting in the desk chair, deciding now was not the time to bring up Jade's debt to her. "It makes no sense."

"None of this makes _sense_ ," Holgor hissed and waved her free arm in a circle encompassing the room. "Not the distress call, this emptiness in space, whatever attacked us, and by the ancients not this INFERNAL TAPPING!" she shouted at the ceiling while levering herself off the bunk.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Pause. Tap. Tap.

"You see? That _kutag_ is mocking me!"

Shirlee didn't know if kutag was a togruta swear word or was something like calling someone a nerf, but it didn't matter because Holgor was in full swing.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"I'm going to KILL IT. You hear that you motherless bugata?" She shouted as she tried to get up from the bunk. She got as far as standing before sitting heavily back down, hands on either side of her horns. "Make it STOP," she cried before sobbing, "Please, just make it _stop_."

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Asori, listen to me," Shirlee said urgently, needing to make sure her first mate listened to her and not the tapping. She put her hands on Holgor's shoulders and gave a little shake.

"We're gonna get out of here, I promise. Just hold it together a little while longer, 'kay? Just a little longer."

"We're never getting out of here," she said forlornly her emotions swinging wildly from rage to depression in an instant. "We're all going to die out here. Just like the _Lonely Star_. No one will ever find us."

"Karrde will. He'll never stop searching for us."

"Karrde is on the other side of the galaxy. We'll all be dead before he even realizes something is wrong."

The problem was, Holgor was right. Karrde was on the other side of the galaxy and his network would not have had enough time to inform him of the _Ice_ 's change in course. They were on their own, however, Holgor didn't need to know that.

"We just need to get the hyperdrive working. Then we can jump the Hell outta here. Are you with me?"

Holgor just stared through Shirlee. Hope fading from her eyes with each Tap.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Have you noticed that tapping is increasing?" Holgor said absently, still not really seeing her captain in front of her.

"No, it is?"

"It's trying to find us."

"You don't know that."

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap.

"It's coming!"

"Asori, calm down," Shirlee tried to reason with her, but her own fear was starting to take over, making her voice tremble.

"It goes silent just before it strikes," and the togruta's normally lithe voice rising in pitch and speed with each word. "It did in the engine room." She closed her eyes and violently shook her head. "MAKE IT STOP!"

Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap.

Silence.

Alarms blared and the lights flickered as the ship was struck again. But this time they didn't careen wildly. This more like a rivet gun driving a red-hot rivet through metal. Then the second worst alarm on the ship went off screaming for attention while orange lights flashed in a sickening strobe effect.

"FIRE!" Shirlee shouted and turned to the data terminal. Flicking the ships intercom switch she yelled, "All crew report!" Even as she spoke her hands flew over the keyboard bring up a basic ship diagnostic screen. A fire in the forward sensor array on D2. Torve and Jubhi! "Everyone drop what you're doing and get to the forward sensor dome NOW!"

Shirlee didn't even wait to check on Holgor as she ran from the cabin and opened the lift doors with an emergency code. Not wanting to wait for the lift she grabbed the emergency ladder just to the right of the doors and swung out on it. Then, with her boots braced against the sides of the ladder and her hands on either side she fell in a controlled slide. Only pausing to relieve the friction in her hands. She needed to fall 6 decks. She only made it 4 before she landed on top of the lift. But before she could open the top hatch the lift dropped down the remaining 2 decks. The engine crew must be inside she thought as she worked the top emergency escape hatch open and dropped down inside the lift.

She saw running forms still in their vac suits making for the sensor room as she grabbed an emergency extinguisher next to the lift and sprinted after them.

Feeling the heat before she rounded a stack of computer banks belonging to the sensors, Shirlee prayed that Jubhi and Torve weren't there. That they made it out because the intensity of the heat wave that hit her was like stepping into the very heart of the 8th Hell. Inferno. A place that would burn away your sins and impurities for eternity. Condemned to a place where your skin would burn and blood would boil, being cooked by the fires of virtuousness.

Shirlee prayed harder.

When she finally saw what she was up against, her heart sank. A wall of flames from floor to ceiling reached out, looking for more victims to consume. The 2 figures in its heart not enough the satisfy its hungry appetite.

They writhed and flayed as the flames leapt from their surroundings to their bodies and back. One tall and lanky, the other shorter but still tall by human standards. They screamed bestial sounds of pain and despair and Shirlee could do _nothing_ to help them. She didn't carry a blaster on ship and encouraged her crew not to as well. Smuggling just wasn't that dangerous. 95% of the time bribed government officials made the process a breeze and crew who carried blasters tended to use them in Shirlee's opinion. But as a result she had no way to end Jubhi and Torve's suffering.

The others, Morlev and Elkin, somewhat protected by their vac suits tried to contain the blaze with emergency extinguishers but to no avail. There was only one way to contain the fire.

Bracing an arm in front of her face to try and ward off the heat she grabbed Morlev and pushed her back towards the bulkhead door. Coughing as the smoke filled the cramped space. She resisted at first before dropping her extinguisher and leaving the sensor room.

Elkin was another story. He refused to leave his friends and was in a blind panic using all of his extinguisher then picking up Morlev's discarded one. Each time Shirlee tried to grab him he would shrug her off and continue his futile struggle with the blaze.

The heat was unbearable. The sweat was pouring off Shirlee's face, trying to blind her and the smoke filled her lungs trying to suffocate her, but she was determined to get Elkin out. When Morlev's extinguisher ran out she body checked Elkin against the wall and shouted, "THEY'RE GONE! WE NEED TO GET OUT OR WE'LL DIE TOO! THE WHOLE SHIP WILL UNLESS WE VENT THIS ROOM!" She ended up in a coughing fit but Elkin nodded and they stumbled away from the blaze. The room so filled with smoke by this point she needed one hand on the wall to guide her, burning her fingers as she did so.

They tripped out of the hatch door, supporting each other and coughing against the chemical laden smoke that coated their lungs. Morlev slammed shut the hatch and called on the intercom. "Vent the atmosphere from the forward sensor room _now_!"

There was no sound to indicate whether or not the air was leaving, depriving the fire of its air supply and ability to burn. Only the sound of Corvus over the ship's speakers saying the venting was complete and the strobing lights turning off and the alarms falling silent meant the fire was out.

Coughing and wheezing, Shirlee tried to get to her feet but he fell, tangled up in Elkin's bulky vac suit and her own lightheadedness. It was only then that she heard his mutterings and the back of his head banging against the deck plating.

"Why, why, why," he repeated and for every 'why' he would bang his head only to be interrupted intermittently by coughing. He had been close with Torve. The older smuggler taking the younger under his wing and guiding him through the pitfalls of the business.

"Elkin," her voice rasped and sent her into another coughing fit. She'd known Torve from her days in Gillespee's crew. He was only a standard year older than her and while his sense of humor tended toward the lewd and vulgar, his work ethic was solid. She had genuinely liked him. He'd been a friend. He had been both their friend. And though she didn't know Jubhi as well, the female wookie would be missed.

A scream of rage and sadness tore up her already abused throat as she pounded on the deck at the senselessness of it all.

"Captain?"

There was no rhyme or reason to these deaths. In less then a day she'd lost half her crew. A sob turned into another bout of coughing.

"Captain Faughn?"

When she quieted down once again she realized Morlev was calling to her.

"Captain Faughn? What are we going to do?"

Tap. Tap. Pause. Tap.

She gritted her teeth and stood, looking at Morlev's worried face, tear streaks created tracks down her cheeks through the soot, making it so her blue Kiffar clan tattoos that went from just under each eye in a straight line to her jawline, popped in relief. Bright blue hair was matted with sweat and smoke. Shirlee doubted she looked much better.

But the crew still needed her.

"We're gonna get out of her. That's what we're gonna do," she rasped and looked around. Elkin was still on the floor but no longer banging his head and silent, listening. Both he and Morlev still had their vac suits on, but, and Shirlee looked again just to make sure, Jade was nowhere to be seen. She should have been with them.

Trying to work more moisture into her mouth, she asked them roughly, "Where is Jade?"

Tap. Pause. Tap. Tap.

"I don't know," Morlev said. "When I got to the hyperdrive, no one was there. Elkin showed up a little later but I haven't seen Jade since we all left for your talk with Jaleer."

"What do you mean? I saw her on D5 and she said she was on her way to the hyperdrive before I even sent you down there."

Morlev shrugged helplessly, "She wasn't there and I haven't seen her."

"Elkin?" She asked, kneeling down beside the young man. He didn't respond. "Hey, Alen. Come on back. Torve wouldn't have wanted you to check out like this."

He blinked a few times and turned his head fractionally towards her.

"Alen? I need to know if you've seen Jade. Can you tell me that, Alen?"

"Jade?" he said in a confused, hoarse whisper.

"Right, Mara Jade," she coaxed him. "I need to know where she is."

He shook his head and Shirlee couldn't tell if it was from confusion or telling her he didn't know where Jade was.

"It's alright, Alen. We'll find her. But let's get you up to your bunk to rest," she told him and patted his chest. He probably wouldn't feel it through the vac-suit but it grounded Shirlee.

With Morlev's help, she got them all back up to D8 and Elkin out of his suit.

Turning back to the Kiffar woman, Shirlee was about to order her back to the hyperdrive when she saw her face. Morlev had used the washbasin to wipe her face off but that only allowed Shirlee to see the sheer terror written there.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Pa..pa..please Captain. Don't make me go back. Not all by myself." Her voice trembling as she tried to contain her fear.

Taking pity on the young woman, about the same age as Elkin she noted absently, Shirlee said, "Don't worry. You don't have to go back. I need your help locating Jade. She's the hyperdrive mechanic and we need her to get out of here."

"Can we really get out of here? Every time we try someone dies."

"Yes, we are," she said firmly, hoping Morlev believed her because she was beginning to lose hope herself. And if that happened they were all dead.

"Go ahead and remove your vac suit. I'm just going to check on Holgor and check in with Corvus and Irris on the bridge."

Morlev deflated in relief and started to remove her suit as Shirlee exited the general crew quarter for Holgor's. Keying the door open and thinking only on how much she wished she could take shower, she didn't initially realize that the room was empty.

"Holgor?" she asked, knocking on the refresher door.

No answer.

She opened it just to make sure. No one inside.

The shower door was already open and a quick look in her storage locker also came up empty.

"Holgor!" She said to the empty room as if expecting her first mate to come out of hiding.

On a whim, she ran to Jade's room across the hall and over rid the lock.

"Asori!" she shouted before the door was even open. But the togruta was not there. But someone had been in Jade's room because the place was a mess. Clothing, datapads, and personal effects were thrown here and there. The bed was rumpled and the desk chair was upended.

"Kriff! Kriff, kriff, kriff, kriff, kriff, _KRIFF_!"


	3. Chapter 3

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

There was no way Jade was this messy. It just didn't fit with her personality. Shirlee spun wildly in the cabin trying to take it all in. As she did her boot bumped into something on the floor and she reflexively looked down. With her mind whirling it took a few seconds for her to process just what it was she was looking at.

A sheath for a small holdout blaster like the kind you would hide up your sleeve. But the blaster was missing.

" _No_ ," she said aloud to the disordered cabin.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Pause. Tap.

She flew from the room and called the lift.

"Captain?"

"Get to the bridge!" She ordered Morlev and Elkin. "If you see Jade or Holgor restrain them!"

"What's…?"

"I don't know. But nothing good. Just stay on the bridge with Corvus and Irris. Got it?"

"Yes Captain," Morlev said and Shirlee could hear boots on the deck plates as she and Elkin made for the aft lift.

Tap. Pause. Tap. Tap. Tap.

She would need to do a deck by deck search. It would be easier with the rest of the crew but she needed them safe. She had to keep them safe because she doubted Holgor was in her right mind. She seriously doubted Jade was much better off. Whatever it was outside the ship was driving both women over the brink.

The lift finally arrived and she hit D7.

The forward lift stopped at the crew quarters on D8 and went all the way down to D1 and the forward boarding ramp. The bridge could only be accessed from the aft lift that started on D4. The split lift system was one of the things Shirlee disliked on the Corellian Engineering Corporation Action VI Bulk Freighters. But Karrde liked them for their durability and how easy they were to modify. His own flagship, the _Wild Karrde_ was also a CEC Action VI just like the _Starry Ice_. Gillespee had preferred SoroSub's I-1800 Medium Freighters as they were cheaper and faster. Right now Shirlee wished the _Ice_ was an I-1800 with a 1 lift design. It would make searching the ship easier and eliminate Jade or Holgor doubling back.

Even before the door opened fully Shirlee was rushing for her cabin. As much as she hated blasters on ship she wouldn't be caught without one if Holgor wasn't in an understating or reasonable mood. She was fairly certain it was Holgor who had destroyed Jade's cabin and found and taken the small holdout blaster. It was possible she had her own blaster as well.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Buckling her holster around her hips and thigh she checked the power pack of her Glie-44 blaster pistol and made sure it was set for stun. Holstering it she added a vibro-blade to her boot for good measure and headed back to the lift.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap.

No sooner had the doors shut when another impact sent her crashing against the back wall, head banging hard against the metal and dropping her to the floor.

Consciousness returned suddenly and Shirlee jerked awake, adrenaline pumping through her system ready to fight or flee from danger. But she could see nothing in the pitch blackness before her eyes. She blinked, making sure her eyes really were open and saw red before it faded to blackness a second later. The ships turbolift was flashing the red emergency lights meaning main power was offline again. The lift would be inoperable.

Taking a deep breath to calm her racing heart, Shirlee got to her feet and felt the back of her head where the sharp throbbing indicated. Sure enough, a good sized lump could be felt that spiked in protest at being touched. Combined with the other aches and pains she felt in her left shoulder and right kneecap she had been flung around inside the lift, hard.

Reaching her right hand out against the wall to steady herself and pushing the pain in her shoulder aside, she reached the left up to swipe away her long black hair that had come loose from its tie. As her hand brushed her forehead a stinging pain raced across her head and into her hairline. Bringing her fingers back down she saw sticky black liquid coated the tips in the harsh strobing red light. Blood.

No doubt she had a concussion too.

Taking a cautious step toward the door and only wobbling a little, Shirlee opened the emergency door release panel and pulled on the lever inside. The door lock safety disengaged and the door opened a fraction. Putting her good shoulder against it she opened it and the shaft door all the way to find she had never even left D7.

The red strobing intensified her headache as she made her way back to her cabin. She passed through the sleeping area and made for the auxiliary bridge and holonet communications room. Fumbling for the emergency hand light under the main console she keyed the ship's intercom.

"This is Captain Faughn, anyone care to tell me what the _Hell_ is going on?"

She keyed off waiting for a response. No one answered. "Captain to crew, report!"

Again, no response.

"Bridge!" she shouted as she singled out the Bridge's comm-channel. "Corvus! _Answer me_!"

Silence.

A cold shiver raced down her spine. "Irris, Morlev, Elkin, **_anybody_**!"

The deathly quiet of the ship and the lack of response from her crew sent Shirlee stumbling into a chair, numb. This isn't happening, she told herself. They are _fine_! Main power is offline and maybe so are communications. That has to be it, she consoled herself. That last hit somehow knocked out internal comms. They were probably all on the bridge, worried, but fine.

Tap. Tap. Pause. Tap.

Hand light lit she rushed back to the lift and once again got the emergency hatch open. The climb up to D8 and then over the connecting corridor to the aft lift meant losing precious time. But she had to check on her crew. She had to know.

Just as she's about to leap up to get on top of the lift she heard a faint nose. The only sounds she should be hearing from the derelict ship were the harshness of her breathing and her heart pounding in her ears.

She stopped to listen. Straining her hearing for even the faintest of sounds.

There.

The faint sounds of blaster fire reverberating through the lower decks!

Shirlee took one last look at the top hatch and the easiest access way to the bridge, then let out a groan of frustration and began prying off the deck plates to reach the bottom emergency escape hatch for the lift.

Tap. Pause. Tap. Pause. Tap. Tap.

5 agonizing minutes later and 2 more blaster shots and Shirlee swung down beneath the lift, hand light in her mouth and grappled for the emergency ladder. This time she climbed down. The shots sounded distant but still from the forward part of the ship. Not on D6, the life-support systems room was cramped and would muffle the sound. The shots sounded like they were traveling a fair distance and echoing through the ship.

That meant she could cross D3 with its hold full of cargo, off her list of possibilities. She doubted she would have been able to hear a shot from D2 or 1 so that left D5 and 6. Both empty of cargo and both with deck grating instead of plates, allowing sound to travel further and echo longer.

She made it to D6 and pried open the door and got out. The hold was empty and the red pulse of the emergency backup lights showed her that not so much as a kartainian mouse was moving. She moved a few meters into the hold anyways and listened.

A scream ripped through the silence and Shirlee looked down. Shinning her hand light through the deck grates and with the addition of the weak red emergency lights she could just make out the forms of Mara Jade and Asori Holgor, circling each other in combat stances.

"HOLGOR! JADE! STOP!" She yelled with all her breath. THAT was a mistake and the feeling of dizziness caused her to stumble to remain upright.

And her order did no good. Either the pair couldn't hear her or they were ignoring her as they continued to circle until what looked like Holgor lunging for Jade. They locked in combat as Shirlee tried to run back to the lift door. She almost made it before the lightheadedness caught up to her and she stumbled again, crashing into the deck grating, hand light flying off away from her and scraping up her hands and knees badly.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Pause. Tap.

Trying to ignore the pain and disorientation she struggled to reopen the lift door. With no power to the lift, the doors auto-closed in case of a hull breach, keeping the other decks from losing atmosphere. Cursing the door and her bleeding hands she finally got it open. She tried to grab the ladder rungs and one bloody hand slipped before she could get her feet under her. Grabbing frantically at the ladder she managed to grab hold before falling and breaking her neck at the bottom of the lift shaft.

The shaft suddenly seemed to stretch into infinity and as she tried to calm her wildly beating heart that sent strobing pulses of pain through the lump on the back of her head. Vertigo was not usually a problem for her and so she had to spend precious moments regaining control of her breathing, eyes closed and clinging to the ladder with all her might.

When she felt calm enough, she started climbing down.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Thankfully she only needed to go down one more deck. Any more and Shirlee wasn't confident that her coordination would last. She was already blinking rapidly to clear her vision as it burred before her eyes, the pulsing red lights not helping to sharpen her sight.

Finally, she reached the right deck, shouldered open the lift shaft door and stepped shakily onto the deck.

There was a crashing-rattling sound as bodies hit the deck and the grating shuddered under the impact, followed by a shriek of primordial rage.

"YOU'RE KILLING US! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" Holgor screamed from the top of her lungs.

More crashing could be heard and what sounded like the thud of something solid impacting flesh.

"It's NOT my fault!" Roared Jade. "It's hungry. So Hungry. It's been sooo _long_." And the longing in her voice chilled Shirlee to the bone.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap.

Half running, half stumbling, Shirlee pulled her blaster as she neared the two combatants. Her foot struck something and she saw a flash of red reflect off of a shiny cylindrical object before it rolled away out of sight. Not taking the time to find out what it was she continued on.

Jade and Holgor had moved to the center of the deck near the central cargo lift, locked arm in arm as they struggled for the upper hand. Shirlee aimed her blaster, intending to stun both of them when it happened.

Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap.

CRASH. SHRIEK. SCREAM. WHOOSH.

An arm, no _tentacle_ , broke through the outer hull nearest to the two fighting women and grabbed Holgor in its grasp. She screamed in pain or rage, Shirlee's disordered brain speculated that it was probably both, then shouted at Jade, "YOU DID THIS!" While a maelstrom filled the hold as all the air in D3-6 begun rushing out the newly created hole.

Shirlee was flung to her stomach and frantically grabbed hold of the deck grating, curving her fingers into the holes in a desperate attempt to keep from being sucked out. Not waiting further, she rolled to her back, clicked her blaster to its highest setting, and fired. She hadn't bothered to aim and the air rushing out of the ship and her hair whipping in her face made it impossible anyway. But the shot hit the red leathery skin of the tentacle holding Holgor around her middle.

Or was it red because of the light? Either way, the thing didn't so much as flinch.

She fired again and again, untangling her fingers from the grate for a two-handed grip and letting the force of the escaping atmosphere pull her toward the limb. She missed once and struck the same general area on the 3rd shot. Still, it did not release her First Mate.

Before she could get another shot off, Shirlee crashed into the limb holding Holgor and grabbed the woman's clothes to keep from being pulled into the breach caused by said limb.

The air howled through the tears in the hull and Shirlee hazard a look through her thrashing hair to see why she and Holgor hadn't been pulled out yet. The rip in the metal was bending back every time they creature tried to pull its limb through, catching and pining the limb in place. To free itself it would need to wrench its limb back through doing considerable damage to itself. This could buy them some time. Or a least till all the air was removed and they suffocated to death.

Pulling the vibro-blade from her boot, Shirlee hacked at the limb while Holgor held on to her free arm.

"HURRY!" Screamed Holgor over the now diminishing sounds of escaping air. Shirlee redoubled her efforts but the skin was like bardu rubber. Her blade simply bounced off every time she struck.

A sudden wrench and the limb dragged them closer to the breach, the creature deciding to simply yank its trapped limb free.

"FAUGHN!" Holgor screamed as the limb tugged its prize closer. She assumed it was a cry for help but an instant later Shirlee saw the flash of blue-white light and turned to see Mara Jade steadily approach them, seemingly not affected at all by the still rushing atmosphere. She planted one foot in front of the other as she approached. Her hair had escaped its braid and was flying in every direction, blood red rather than the red-gold it normally was. But her face, it was manic as the harsh shadows cast the high cheekbones and eye sockets into sharp relief as she muttered to herself, the sound caring to Shirlee and Holgor as it rushed past, "Only way. The only way. So hungry. I know. I know what to do. The only way. I understand."

"JADE! DON'T!" Shirlee screamed as the blue-white blade, so bright and mesmerizing in the flashing red and darkness of the hold, advanced on them.

The limb jerked them another meter, the flesh ripping where it rubbed against the metal of the ship when the lightsaber blade swung out and severed both of Holgor's arms just below the elbow. The sudden removal of the only thing keeping Shirlee from following the air out of the ship now gone, she expected to tumble into the razor sharp metal where the tentacle wasn't. Shredding her body as the pressure forced her through the only exit.

But it didn't happen.

With one last tug, the limb dragged Holgor into the inky blackness of space, screaming at the loss of her limbs and the loss of her life.

But Shirlee found herself being pulled in the other direction even as the air escaped in a renewed fury, its way now completely unblocked.

She continued to defy the pull of the last of the escaping atmosphere as she reached the lift doors, no longer able to breath in the vacuum that was the ships holds.

She clawed at her throat, desperate for one last breath. It couldn't end like this? Not like this. She had expected to die in a flash of a superheated explosion as her ship disintegrated around her in a barrage of turbolaser fire. Not slow creeping darkness as she suffocated in the belly of her ship on the far reaches of the galaxy.

The next thing she knew she was gulping down as many lung fulls of air as she could. Which was difficult in the thin atmosphere.

"Slow breaths," Jade said in her ear and Shirlee jerked to face the other woman. Jade had her arms wrapped around her holding her against the lift shafts ladder.

"You….You…..you….," she tried to say through gasped breaths, reaching for the ladder rungs to support herself and dislodge Jade's hold on her. Her fear, the horror of what she'd just seen, and the thin air all kept her from finishing her sentence.

"I know what I did. I know. It was the only way. It is so hungry. The only way," Jade said in an absentminded, stuttering kind of way.

"You… killed…," she gasped and only then noticed Asori's hands and arms just below the elbow, still attached to her left arm.

She screamed and shook her arm trying to dislodge the limbs. It worked too well and one flew against the lift wall banging wetly and the other smacked Jade in the face, causing her to momentarily lose her own grip on the ladder. She fell down past Shirlee's feet before she caught herself.

"You _don't understand_!" Jade growled. "But I do. _I understand_. And I'll make you understand."

Shirlee didn't even bother to reply. She just started climbing.

She climbed as fast as her battered body would let her. Occasionally slipping as her lacerated hands lost their grip or her abused head lost concentration. But she never stopped climbing. Never looked down to see if Jade was following her or how close she was. She climbed and climbed. Huffing and wheezing in the thin air of the lift shaft.

So intent was she on her task that she nearly missed the door for D7. Stopping a few rungs too high she lowered herself back down and clawed at the door to get it open. Slowly and sluggishly it parted from the frame wide enough for her to slip through. She dove through and scrambled along the floor towards her cabin until she was jerked to a halt. Her foot was caught in the door as it closed.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Pause. Tap.

"I understand," came Jade's too calm voice from a few meters down the shaft. "I know what to do. It's so hungry, but I know what to do."

Shirlee doubled back and pulled with all her might to open the door once again and free her foot. Jerking it free just as Jade's hand came into view, pulling herself up so she could peer through the now empty gap of the door and frame as the door slide shut.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

"I KNOW WHAT TO DO!" Jade yelled through the door though it sounded little more then a loud whisper through the durasteel or if Shirlee had bothered to pay attention. She was already scrambling for her cabin and the auxiliary bridge's comm's array.

Falling to her already bruised knees in her haste and disorientation, she crawled the last meter to her door, keyed it open from the floor and rolled inside just as the lift doors opened and held, not closing automatically as they should without support.

Tap. Tap. Pause. Tap. Tap.

The last thing she saw was Jade stepping calmly onto the deck and saying, "I know. I know. I understand." Before her own cabin door closed. She hit the door lock, but if Jade still had her lightsaber then that wouldn't hold her for long.

Getting to her feet again she ran for the auxiliary bridge door and locked that behind her as well.

She staggered to the communication's station and reached a shaking hand to the comm panel and activated the emergency beacon.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Shirlee jumped at the sound of hand hitting durasteel. The durasteel of the auxiliary bridge door.

She had to work fast. "This is….this is Shirlee Faughn, Captain of the _Starry Ice_ ….. We were….. _attacked_ by….something. It somehow punctured our hull _through our shields_!… If you can hear me, please _help me_!"

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

By the gods she wasn't in the 8th Hell but the 9th. The realm of evil spirits and dark souls that were tortured in perpetual madness never to escape. Chaos. _The Void_.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

"Help me…..it's coming….. _she's_ coming… **_Help_**."

Tap. Tap. Tap.


End file.
